Today’s Tech Sightings: Samsung Kills Galaxy Note 7 Over Fire Concerns Samsung on Tuesday killed its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, weeks after reports started coming in that the phones were exploding or going up in smoke. Even after a global recall of 2.5 million devices, so-called “safe” replacement smartphones also ran into trouble. The […]
R.I.P Galaxy Note 7; Huawei Gets Serious About AI
Samsung’s Exploding Nightmare; Android Ransomware Spreading
Today’s Tech Sightings: Samsung’s Exploding-smartphone Nightmare Is Getting Even Worse Samsung is in the middle of a global recall of its new Galaxy Note 7 after its Lithium-ion batteries started catching fire and exploding, and has been replacing them with “safe” smartphones. But the “safe” replacement started smoking on a U.S. flight Wednesday, prompting an […]
Yahoo Disputes Scanning Report; Messenger Encrypted – With Strings
Today’s Tech Sightings: Yahoo Calls Report of Secret Email Scanning ‘Misleading’ Yahoo is disputing a Reuters’ story that said the company used custom software to scan users’ emails in real time for specific information to comply with a classified order from the U.S. government. Yahoo denied such a program exists and called the report misleading. […]
Google Kicks Off Hardware Launch; Touring Your Bloodstream With VR
Today’s Tech Sightings: #MadebyGoogle Event Launches in San Francisco With New Hardware, Smartphones Android fans can look forward to a bunch of new products from Google. Those include home devices to compete with Amazon’s voice-activated gadgets and high-end smartphones to compete with Apple. The most anticipated are a pair of Pixel smartphones that replace the […]
New Group Tackles AI Fears; ‘Brain Chips’ Herald New Computing Era
Today’s Tech Sightings: Five Tech Giants Team Up to Pacify AI Fears The rapidly-evolving field of artificial intelligence (AI) has raised concern either because of fears that robots will take over jobs or because of uncertainty about ethics and best practices, among other issues. The new nonprofit alliance includes Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM, […]
Pakistan Gets Offline Viewing for YouTube; China’s Wild Web of Hackers
Today’s Tech Sightings: YouTube Rolls Out Offline Video Saving Feature in Pakistan The time that Pakistanis spend watching YouTube videos has more than doubled in the past eight months, according to Google, particularly since January, when the government lifted a ban on the service. Now, Google is adding a new feature that will allow Pakistani […]
Researcher Honored for India TB Tracking; Yahoo’s Massive Data Breach
Today’s Tech Sightings: Microsoft Researcher Behind TB Treatment-monitoring Program Wins ‘Genius’ Grant Microsoft’s Bill Thies, who works on communications programs in developing countries, will receive the “genius” grant, awarded by the MacArthur Foundation. Thies’ work on India’s 99DOTS program provides a low-cost way for people to receive monitored tuberculosis treatment. Using their cell phones, patients can […]
Internet ICANN Move Hits Congressional Block; Google Launches Allo
Today’s Tech Sightings: The Internet Belongs to the World, Not to Ted Cruz The United States is supposed to hand over control of internet domain management to ICANN on October 1. ICANN is short for the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit organization. The problem now is that the U.S. Congress […]
Nigerian Girls to Get Tech Training; Indian Students Take on WhatsApp
Today’s Tech Sightings: Youth for Technology Foundation to Train 6,000 Nigerian Girls in Technology The Youth for Technology Foundation announced it will train 6,000 Nigerian girls unable to attend school or risk the dangers of human trafficking to use 3-D printing. The training, which was made public during the 2016 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting and […]